How Data Processing Uncovers Misconduct in Use of Force in Puerto Rico
In April, 2021, the Puerto Rico Police Department was ordered by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico to hand over seven years of records of interventions that involved use of force. The recipient of these thousands of records was Kilometro Cero, a citizen-led police accountability project that sued for access to the records. As a small organization of researchers and advocates, they had no capacity to process the thousands of PDFs that came their way in July.
Fortunately, through a connection at the Open Society Foundation, Kilometro Cero was able to meet and collaborate with HRDAG, who knew exactly what to do when the police handed over reports (PDFs) and tables (Excel files). HRDAG data scientist Tarak Shah worked with the organization’s junior analyst on a two-fold mission. First, they paired records in the database to incident reports in order to identify gaps—this would flag records that were missing. (After finding the gaps, they sued the police department for access to the missing records). Second, they started building a database that would help them learn more about patterns in where and when the police responded with use of force.
María Mari-Narváez, the executive director of Kilometro Cero, suspected that police violence occurred with more frequency among certain populations. It seemed to her that the more likely victims of violence were poor people, people who lived in certain neighborhoods, and women. She also suspected language bias, and bias against drug users, sex workers, immigrants, and people without houses.
The organization is using the database to find patterns in homicides by police. (Is this work completed?) In a report published in 2022 the team looked at the nuances of bias. Mari says that thanks to this project, they’ve been able to “get to a better number that feels more like the truth.”
In July 2022, a video of police activity in Puerto Rico went viral. The video captured Police Sergeant Gabriel Acevedo Pérez tasering an elderly man in Aguadilla. The Km0 team used the database to quickly identify previous use-of-force documents involving Acevedo Pérez, which included multiple incidents in which he used a taser, as well as a killing. They were able to enrich the public conversation about the incident by providing this important historical context.
The project continued to receive records since the first court decision, with 10 years worth of records, from 2014 to 2023.
Caption: HRDAG and Kilometro Cero processed 10,000 reports of use of force by police.
Further readings
Kilometro Cero. 6 July, 2022.
Sargento que agredió a adulto mayor en Aguadilla mató a hombre desarmado en noviembre pasado
Related publications
Kilometro Cero. March, 2022.
Licencia para matar
HRDAG. Christine Grillo. 18 May, 2022
Police Violence in Puerto Rico: Flooded with Data
Acknowledgments
HRDAG was supported in this work by MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Heising Simons Foundation, and Open Society Foundations.
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